Samsung Galaxy S8: The Best Smartphone Of 2017?

At Plus QA we have the opportunity to test on a lot of different mobile devices. Every time a new device comes out, we are very excited to add it to our collection. Our device library currently contains over 250 devices.

The Samsung Galaxy S8.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is the big brother of the Samsung Galaxy S7. Our first impression was a very good one; the design of the phone is really slick. Samsung has created a smaller phone with a bigger screen than the S7, which is very impressive.

Android Operating System.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 comes with Android 7.0 Nougat. We talked a lot about the new OS in our monthly Android stats blog post. We know that the number of Nougat users is increasing due to new phone releases every month.

With the most updated Android OS, the Galaxy S8 is one of the most powerful phones available. And it’s going to be even more exciting this summer; Samsung is hoping that the S8 will support the Google Daydream VR system in the upcoming months.

Apps are certainly a big part of our daily life. We use them for almost everything: the camera, maps, social media, games… Users need a powerful device and operating system to get the best experience. The Samsung Galaxy S8 with Android Nougat is definitely a good combination.

the design.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 is quite impressive with its big screen of 5.8 inches. Thanks to its tall screen, it fits perfectly in your hand. The face is pretty flat with no real buttons. The navigation buttons are now virtual, and you’ll find them directly on the screen.

Our team of testers liked the design a lot, especially with the curved screen and the very thin bezel.

If you turn the phone over, you will see a pretty simple design with the Samsung logo in the middle. At the top center, from left to right, you’ll find first the flashlight, then the camera and finally, the fingerprint sensor.

Visually, it’s pretty. However the location of the fingerprint sensor is not ideal. Just next to the camera, it’s easy to get the lens dirty with your fingerprint. Moreover, it’s kind of complicated to access that area with your finger, which can be very annoying for some people when unlocking their phone.

The camera.

The 12 megapixel camera is quite impressive. The quality is just awesome and you can get professional looking results.

To fix the problem of a dirty lens due to the fingerprint sensor, Samsung implemented a system which will alert you when the lens is dirty. If, by any chance, you put your dirty finger on the camera, you’ll receive a notification that says that you should clean the lens. That’s helpful, but we wish Samsung would just find a better location for that fingerprint sensor.

The battery.

The battery duration of the phone is pretty good. We are able to test on it throughout the day without recharging it. Of course, you will have to recharge the battery at night, like the majority of smartphones.

It doesn’t get very hot, which is a good sign for a Samsung device. Indeed, everyone remembers the disaster that Samsung had with the Note 7.

Since then, Samsung has set up a new process to check the battery of their phones named “8-Point Battery Safety Check”.

More generally…

More generally speaking, the Samsung Galaxy S8 is a very good device, very fast and is able to handle heavy programs like movies or games.

The quality of the screen is crisp and clear and it’s always a real pleasure to test on it.

Its main competitor is currently the iPhone 7, which we also have in our device room.
Recently, we had a first look at what the iPhone 8 might look like. It seems that the trend is to build bigger devices. It appears that the iPhone 8 will be 1.1 inches bigger than the iPhone 7. It will run the new OS11 which was showcased during WWDC. If you want to know more about the features of this new operating system, check out our blog post about WWDC.